New Character & Lakshya Digital

Today we unveil a new character and introduce the production team who is giving us a hand with character production, Lakshya Digital.

New Character!!

We gave a first look of this character earlier. You'll have to wait and see how she fits in with the temple in the background.

Introducing Lakshya Digital

Shenmue III will have a host of new, compelling characters from all walks of life.

And while we can't say just how many, it will be a lot! The game art studio Lakshya Digital will be cooperating with us to bring these great characters to life. Lakshya Digital is based in Gurgaon (one of India's financial and technology hubs) and has studios in Pune and Seattle, where production work for the game is underway.

That is some serious focus!

Strategy meeting in progress. They are in online meetings with our art team in Tokyo every week.

India may be hot, but Lakshya Digital brings the fire! Meet the team stoking character production.

The next dev room report is still in the works, so please look forward to it! Thank you all for your continued support.

@Ben B Man, you have to realize this game isn't supposed to be "cuting edge" like the firs two were! Times are different. Shenmue 3 doesn't have Sega horse power (meaning money) behind it like it did in the old days. Shenmue is now a kind of an indie game funded by people like me and you.
If you're expecting Uncharted "cutting edge" graphics forget it, you're not going to get it, unless you're able to somehow inject 20 or 30 million dollars in the project and give it 2 more years of development.

Another point you make is that outsourcing is bad. Well I don't know about that, but if games like Uncharted 4 and Metal Gear Solid V (wich was the game of the year) had that, that can't be, in itself, a couse of concern.

You're completly and blindly complaninning about something you know nothing about nor any of us know, because the game isn't out yet.
Wait for the game to be finished. Complain then if you have reasons to. To complain at this point is idious,

Nice !! the guys from metal gear solid V are giving a hand ;) good choice! I cant wait to see the AM2 work fusing with Lakshya!
Also; Good to know you are interacting with Lakshya every week! But what about us???
Give us more updates , more videos , more picture of what is been produced!

It seems that everytime there is an update there are some negative folks always complaining just so you know.remember this game was not suposed to hAppen i dont care if they give it to me in dreamcast graphics, im sure it will be good not only that but all that they show us is not the finished product i bet you when this game comes out it will be beautiful. Dont know if they will go with quality over quantity when it comes to the open world but in story it will deliver. I think it will be good enough to shut yall up

"Yep. Not only that, this company has offices in Japan and the United States. They're not some outsourcing factory in the middle of Nowhere, India."
And yet their team photos don't seem particularly diverse. Just because one outsourcing firm has grown to colonize the countries it receives business from doesn't make it any less outsourcing. As for their resume, it says very little for exactly what they contributed to these massive budget titles, saving any criticisms I actually have of the aesthetics of those titles for another day.

Also if you want to get down to brass tacks, the main problem is not the fact India has a horrible reputation when it comes to quality of product via outsourcing, but the fact that art direction does not show any sign at all of resembling the AM2 days, or more modern SEGA titles that use what those techniques have evolved into (Examples: Virtua Fighter 5 or Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza Kiwami 2). On the contrary it shows that the team has given up on a specific art direction in favor of simply "getting it done." Really disappointing for a series that once prided itself on being the cutting edge of visual entertainment to the point of giving itself it's own genre. I find it amazing how many people are complaining about the change of something as meaningless as a logo but aren't particularly picky about the obvious shift in art direction.

Yep. Not only that, this company has offices in Japan and the United States. They're not some outsourcing factory in the middle of Nowhere, India. They also have an impressive resume that lists many of the biggest games of the last few years. So much ignorance.

Excellent comment by THE PROPHET WUDE. Thank you for the great information on Lakshya Digital. I'm so excited to see the progress the game has been making, and can't wait to see more!! Been waiting since I was 16 to continue this journey!

Superbacker

Very promising. Looks from the photo. The project is engaging some very talented people. Have high expectations for the artistic quality now of the mpcs and main characters with earthy quirks to their personas.

To those people who complain about an indian company taking part in Shenmue III development... Seriously, are you fucking stupid? Outsourcing is really common at this day and age in game development, I don't understand why is so surprising for some. I don't know too much about Lakshya Digital, but they look really focused on the project, so thank you guys for being onboard.

On the other hand, I want to adress to YSnet about the logo. Yes, I know is a minor thing, but for us the fans is one of those subtle things that makes Shenmue, well... Shenmue. Please, consider our petition of going back to the classic logo. Thanks.

So happy to see that the size and scope of the development team are increasing, and that despite still being a Shenmue game, that creative sensibilities from another culture are becoming part of it.

I never considered game development coming out of India, but as a burgeoning economy and tech hub, it`s only a matter of time before domestic development and ideas begin. With such a rich history and such kooky creative sensibilities from Bollywood, I`m looking forward to games that push creative boundaries even more.

I already had a pretty good idea of what I'd find in the comment section. In all honesty, I can understand why Indian studios often have a bad rap, which is probably because they're regularly misrepresented by Indian scammers and the like, and therefore not taken half as seriously in tech industries.

Publishers and developers may outsource work to cheaper countries: fact. Because they're more economical doesn't mean they won't produce quality work. I think they chose well as if you at Lakshya Digital's portfolio they've handled some very successful games.

Good move, and I like the new character. Don't listen to the naysayers, though I must admit that I'd really like a Shenmue 1/2 remaster!

I don't know how to feel about this. It's great that the team is getting help from a group with such a wide portfolio, but this does speak for the practice of outsourcing work to cheaper studios (I'm assuming that hiring a similar company in Japan would have proven to be less value for their already tight budget). I sincerely hope that their contribution will help offload some of the work that, unfortunately, Yu's team has proven to be painfully understaffed to handle (and in a sense too rooted in character design paradigms from 1999 to make models that stand the test of time), but in the back of my mind I wonder if I'll be able to shake the thought that today's games have lost their regionality. Another example is Cuphead, which I enjoy a lot but on which outsources were employed to do part of the gruntwork, like cell animation which has always been an expensive endeavor. Sign of the times, I suppose.

Don't worry Juan, you've only misunderstood every element of the update. This is a positive move and hints at a bigger game. You want more and better quality NPCs right? The current team isn't big enough for that work, and these guys know what they're doing. There will be a huge number of detailed NPCs, and now they will not look like crap.

I regret giving money for this game. The development is goin to be a cheap Indian company!!! making a Japanese game? This people run out of money and the game is goin to suffer. Characters walking trought walls,unoriginal ideas etc

Team Yu... Why didn't the update include mention of some of Lakshya Digital's previous games??? Lakshya Digital is awesome! Wow, these guys have touched some reputable open world games! Thanks for bringing them on! Contesters should check Lakshya Digital's resume before feeling negatively about them!